Last Halloween, a post on this blog introduced the subject of witch trials in France from the 15th through the 18th centuries. In this post, I would like to take a look at one of the most important French works on the crime of witchcraft and its prosecution, a book that gave considerable encouragement to the witch hunt: De la demonomanie des sorciers, by Jean Bodin (1536-1596). It is a unique and, as we will see, a haunted book.
The author of the book, Jean Bodin, is probably better known for his book Les Six livres de la République (Six Books on the Commonwealth), written in 1576, a work for which he became one of the most important French polit